This invention is directed to a process for the removal of chlorinated organic compounds from aqueous waste streams in dichlorobutene manufacturing plants. Chloroprene (2-chlorobutadiene-1,3), the principal monomer from which neoprene rubber is made, is usually produced commercially by dehydrochlorination of 3,4-dichlorobutene-1 (hereafter, sometimes referred to as 3,4-DCB). A mixture of dichlorobutenes, containing both 3,4-DCB and 1,4-dichlorobutene-2, (hereafter, sometimes referred to as 1,4-DCB), is obtained by the vapor-phase chlorination of 1,3-butadiene. The relative proportions of the 1,4-DCB and 3,4-DCB isomers can be changed according to various isomerization processes including those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,515,760 to Wild and 3,819,730 to Nakata et al and British Pat. Nos. 1,058,768 to Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd. and 800,787 to The Distillers Company, Ltd. The process of U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,730, as shown in Example 6 of this reference, can be operated continuously by refluxing the dichlorobutene mixture with the catalyst system at a reduced pressure. In the plant, reduced pressure is often obtained by means of steam jets. Unavoidably, some 1,4-DCB and 3,4-DCB vapors are entrained by steam and, when steam is later condensed, remain dispersed in the resulting waste water. Frequently, this waste water is combined with brine from the 3,4-DCB dehydrochlorination step and discharged into natural bodies of water, such as lakes, rivers, or river estuaries. However, because of the high toxicity of 1,4-DCB to fish, for example, to salmon, the concentration of 1,4-DCB in the aqueous waste stream must be kept at a sufficiently low level to avoid depleting the aquatic life. It has been experimentally determined that the maximum biologically safe concentration of 1,4-DCB in the plant waste effluent water should not exceed about 27 parts per billion (ppb). Assuming a dilution factor of about 1,700 when aqueous DCB wastes are combined with other aqueous plant wastes, the maximum tolerable level of 1,4-DCB in the industrial DCB process waste stream can thus be calculated to be about 46 parts per million (ppm). It is, therefore, important to provide a process capable of reducing the level of 1,4-DCB in aqueous DCB wastes to less than the above figure.